His shoot-from-the-hip tweets are coming back to bite him. There's a lot of quotes in that article that is nothing short of open defiance. Here's a couple of them:

(Sen. Lindsey) Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that a move against Mueller would represent “the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.” His bill, which he said he is drafting in conjunction with Democratic colleagues, would require a federal judge to review any move to dismiss a special counsel.

“If you’re thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it,” (Sen. Ben) Sasse (R-Neb.) said. “The presidency isn’t a bull, and this country isn’t a china shop.”

This is one of the reasons why I didn't fear a Trump presidency as many other of my friends have. He doesn't have the support of his own party and is going to have extreme difficulty getting his agenda put into law.

We don't need to name call other posters, we're better than that and they are welcome to their own beliefs.Pointing out the fallacy of their arguments is the better way of discussing the situations without making enemies or insulting people.

Mooch is Trumps "mini-me" in how he acts. I heard one person say he's what Trump sees when he looks in the mirror (a 40 year old guy with a full head of hair and lots of energy who won't back down) even though he's physically different.It looks like we're in for some real interesting times considering he seems to hate Prebus and Bannon so we will probably be witness to a Shakespearean type of palace knife fight and resulting fallout.

I thought Trump's Presidency would be interesting, but this is more than I and probably almost everyone else expected.Part of keeping sane might be to consider what you will be able to tell your children or grand children about how it all went down - as long as you can keep a little bit of objectivity and perspective.

NorthHawk wrote:I thought Trump's Presidency would be interesting, but this is more than I and probably almost everyone else expected.Part of keeping sane might be to consider what you will be able to tell your children or grand children about how it all went down - as long as you can keep a little bit of objectivity and perspective.

If you followed his campaign like I did, a lot of this stuff wouldn't have been a total surprise. I'm not going to say that I expected these first 6 months to be exactly as we've seen, but I knew that we were going to be for one heck of a wild ride. I suppose that since I don't have a lot of skin in this game, I can look at him and laugh, after all, he's a cartoonist's dream. I think Cbob put it best when he said that the Trump administration is a perpetual SNL skit.

It will be an interesting couple of months. He's threatened to fire AG Jeff Sessions, who has a lot of friends on Capitol Hill, and Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor appointed to look into the Russians hacking of the election. If Trump fires one of those guys, particularly Mueller, then I do think you can start talking about impeachment.

So bye bye Priebus, say hello to a retired general as chief of staff. Preibus was left on the airport Tarmac. Sessions is twisting in the wind.

I actually love it. These stupid SOBs are why chump is president. Preibus should have killed himself for not managing the party better in the primary season allowing 17 dwarves to siphon delegates and allow trump to win states where 80% voted against him.

And the racist Neanderthal and anti pot crusader sessions gave chump legitimacy when he had none. F them I dance on their political graves. Hopefully that of the orange crazy clown soon.

R.D. No "skin" in the game??? Gee whiz Dog, I didn't know that you were NOT an American citizen and that none of your children, grand children, nieces and nephews or anybody else in your family are citizens of the U.S.A. because that would almost be the ONLY way to do not have "skin" in the game. You usually write many of the most intelligent posts in this forum, but your "skin" statement falls very short of your usual quality.

Seahawks4Ever wrote:R.D. No "skin" in the game??? Gee whiz Dog, I didn't know that you were NOT an American citizen and that none of your children, grand children, nieces and nephews or anybody else in your family are citizens of the U.S.A. because that would almost be the ONLY way to do not have "skin" in the game. You usually write many of the most intelligent posts in this forum, but your "skin" statement falls very short of your usual quality.

It's just a figure of speech. Like everyone else, I'm concerned and want the best for my family and fellow citizens. But, for example, since I don't have to worry about where I'm going to get my insurance coverage if Obama Care fails, my stress level is somewhat lower than those that are not as fortunate. As a matter of fact, I'm for continuing at least some parts of Obama Care at least until the R's can come up with a viable replacement and am even willing to pay a modest tax increase to make that a reality.

Obama care isn't going anywhere. Trump butchered repeal and replace with his bizarre behavior and utter cluelessness about policy.He said the senators look like fools. Yeah they do for betting on the biggest fool of all. At some point they need to realize this is going to be an epic do nothing administration other than the borderline racist immigration policies imemented by Kelley who is now taxed with fixing the most Fd up wh in history and Jeff Sessions who trump wants gone .

Wtf did the republicans expect? The chaos president isn't going to change. He's destroying the party but they deserve it.

Hawktawk wrote:Obama care isn't going anywhere. Trump butchered repeal and replace with his bizarre behavior and utter cluelessness about policy.He said the senators look like fools. Yeah they do for betting on the biggest fool of all. At some point they need to realize this is going to be an epic do nothing administration other than the borderline racist immigration policies imemented by Kelley who is now taxed with fixing the most Fd up wh in history and Jeff Sessions who trump wants gone .

Wtf did the republicans expect? The chaos president isn't going to change. He's destroying the party but they deserve it.

Yea, Obama Care is destined to fail, Trump or no Trump. One of the reasons why I was against it in the first place was because it is unstainable. As usual, you can count on the government to screw things up. They made some bad assumptions about those that would enroll in it as about the only people that are on the thing are the very old and/or very sick. Young, healthy people, those that have few medical expenses and help keep the per person cost down, can't afford the premiums.

But we can't just dump it and expect those that were depending on it to fend for themselves. Once we made the decision to cover those folks, it's unconscionable to drop them without a viable alternative. So as much as I dislike it, I support continuing it at least for the time being.

And I disagree with your characterization of Trump's immigration stance as "borderline" racist. There's nothing borderline about it. It is racist. For one, he's succeeded in demonizing immigrants by painting them as nothing but a bunch of drug smuggling, crime ridden low lifes when in fact they are less likely to commit a crime than native born citizens. It's like he has come to us straight out of the 30's and 40's without experiencing the civil rights movements like the rest of us have. The major beef I have with Trump, besides his personality, is his stance on immigration.

Rump called Mexicans rapist and criminals at the beginning of his campaign, yet people still casted votes for him, and those votes came WAY after all the other things he said during the entire campaign.

The real losers are the people that put him in there (and their decision affects the rest of us). Instead of moving forward to keeping unemployment going down, and making necessary changes to the ACA, we have THIS s***.

Maybe for his next hire, he should snag someone off of Farmers Only.com.

Largent80 wrote:Rump called Mexicans rapist and criminals at the beginning of his campaign, yet people still casted votes for him, and those votes came WAY after all the other things he said during the entire campaign.

The real losers are the people that put him in there (and their decision affects the rest of us). Instead of moving forward to keeping unemployment going down, and making necessary changes to the ACA, we have THIS s***.

Maybe for his next hire, he should snag someone off of Farmers Only.com.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Trump didn't call Mexicans rapists and criminals. What he said was that Mexico was sending us their rapists and criminals, but it did have the effect of labeling them in that manner, and played into the fears of those of us that for whatever reason, don't associate with immigrants and consequently don't know who they are or what motivates them. What Trump said was just plain not true. They're not sending us their criminals. Even ICE said that Trump was wrong.

The fact is that immigrants, from Mexico and elsewhere, are less likely to commit a crime than are native born citizens.

Just to maintain my image as a rabble rouser, I have come up with a strategy for our supreme ruler to implement a comeback move that will win over the populace.

If he is smart, and I doubt that, having alienated the GOP, and unhappy with congress, he may choose to go back to an issue he favored a few years back (sorry, no footnotes), when he favored a single payer plan. Medicare for all.

Suddenly, he is a hero for much of the population that disapprove of him now, and he gets sweet revenge on the GOP operatives who failed him in his main promise. And, early on, he said he had a plan that would cover everyone and cost less, but never exhibited it. Here's the answer. Not only does he gain his pound of flesh from the GOP, but he beats the Dems at their new best idea.

Old but Slow wrote:Just to maintain my image as a rabble rouser, I have come up with a strategy for our supreme ruler to implement a comeback move that will win over the populace.

If he is smart, and I doubt that, having alienated the GOP, and unhappy with congress, he may choose to go back to an issue he favored a few years back (sorry, no footnotes), when he favored a single payer plan. Medicare for all.

Suddenly, he is a hero for much of the population that disapprove of him now, and he gets sweet revenge on the GOP operatives who failed him in his main promise. And, early on, he said he had a plan that would cover everyone and cost less, but never exhibited it. Here's the answer. Not only does he gain his pound of flesh from the GOP, but he beats the Dems at their new best idea.

Nah!

I thought you were joking so I did a little research and found you to be spot on, so here's your footnote:

Interesting take obs. I said during the campaign he's a democrat in wolves clothingBeyond the dysfunction he does not want to address entitlements , has contributed to Hillary clintons campaigns been a over the map on issues like planned parenthood and the second amendment, seemingly favors tax increases. I have no idea what drew conservatives and evangelicals to him. They will ultimately get punks and it's already happening.

What a lot of people don't factor in with a single payer system is it gives business a big break.Consider how much middle and large businesses pay to retain salaried and union staff where paying for their health care is part of the bargaining strategies with some even paying for insurance for retirees.If we go back 30 or more years, it's a big reason why the big 3 automakers put plants in Ontario Canada or expanded there instead of Detroit.At one point GM was the largest insurance provider in North America. It wasn't exactly a core element of their business, but took up a lot of resources nonetheless.

Yeah, and Steve Bannon just floated a "tax the rich" @ 45% trial balloon so you may be on to something. Bannon, of course, is on the short list to be the next Trump loyalist to be thrown under the bus while being thrown out the door. Bannon just had yet another enemy put over his head, this scumbagScarmucci creep. Couple him with Kushner and Bannon's days are numbered.

NorthHawk wrote:What a lot of people don't factor in with a single payer system is it gives business a big break.Consider how much middle and large businesses pay to retain salaried and union staff where paying for their health care is part of the bargaining strategies with some even paying for insurance for retirees.If we go back 30 or more years, it's a big reason why the big 3 automakers put plants in Ontario Canada or expanded there instead of Detroit.At one point GM was the largest insurance provider in North America. It wasn't exactly a core element of their business, but took up a lot of resources nonetheless.

That's interesting. But it's not just health care plans that's killing US automakers, it's their pension plans as well. The Big 3 in the US, being that they are more mature companies that have been in business for nearly 100 years, have way more retired employees drawing on pensions and running up medical costs than their foreign competitors have.

The point I was trying to make was for those businesses that pay for employees health coverage it's a burden that impacts their operations and focus to some degree.It's very important when considering businesses that have to compete internationally where the rest of the western world's businesses don't have to contend with these types of expenses.

NorthHawk wrote:The point I was trying to make was for those businesses that pay for employees health coverage it's a burden that impacts their operations and focus to some degree.It's very important when considering businesses that have to compete internationally where the rest of the western world's businesses don't have to contend with these types of expenses.

Yes, I understood your point. It's a valid concern, and it's not just with Canada. Traditional American companies like auto manufacturers have gone south into Mexico to build their plants. The point I was trying to make that it wasn't just health care issue, it's with the entire legacy costs that older, established companies are having to incur.

That's one of the reasons why Trump was so successful in the rust belt states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, essentially putting him into the White House. His "America First" theme resonated with a whole lot of voters. Contrary to what our friend Largent would have you believe, not all Trump voters cast their votes for him because they're a bunch of bigoted morons. There are a large number of single issue voters that voted for Trump strictly due to his isolationism.

"The White House is in tatters, but the nation and the globe is taking a minute and laugh at the most hysterical rise and fall the world of politics has seen in possibly ever."

With all due respects to Hawktalk, you really do need to look at the Trump presidency with a sense of humor. I've never seen an organization as dysfunctional as the Trump White House. They remind me of the Keystone Cops.

I anticipated a lot of things about a Trump presidency, particularly with regard to the failure of Republicans to line up behind him. But the biggest thing I didn't anticipate was this mass chaos that's inflicted his organization. He's a businessman, and I assumed that he had a little better sense as to how to make the trains run on time. I thought Slick Willy's organizational skills were bad when he first took over the White House in '93, but Trump takes the cake.

My view, at this point, is that Donald is most concerned about money laundering. Things like collusion can be softened by diplomacy, but when you are talking about real money there is less room for equivocating.

It is not insignificant that Mueller has brought in attorneys experienced in prosecuting money laundering.

It is also significant that Trump was unable to get financing for his ventures from US banks.

For me the answer is image. Advertising and promotions have dominated news and facts for a while now, and we are fertilizing a generation of watchers. I see young people focused in on their devices, while walking into traffic, and I wonder where we are going?

RiverDog wrote:With all due respects to Hawktalk, you really do need to look at the Trump presidency with a sense of humor. I've never seen an organization as dysfunctional as the Trump White House. They remind me of the Keystone Cops.

I anticipated a lot of things about a Trump presidency, particularly with regard to the failure of Republicans to line up behind him. But the biggest thing I didn't anticipate was this mass chaos that's inflicted his organization. He's a businessman, and I assumed that he had a little better sense as to how to make the trains run on time. I thought Slick Willy's organizational skills were bad when he first took over the White House in '93, but Trump takes the cake.

It would be funny if it weren't so scary. This guy is the German wings pilot. He's flying the plane into the mountain and were all on board. He should be removed by coup if nobody else will do anything. I'm only slightly kidding.

An utterly rudderless loose minded and lipped crazy person cannot be a commander in chief. Just yesterday the joint chiefs informed trump they would NOT be changing transgender policy without further clarification . The congress has put a bill with tamper proof sanctions on his desk. Most telling AZ rep Jeff Flake long a conservative champion of trump issued a scathing op Ed saying basically republicans are delusional to keep following the guy.The end is near for trump, hopefully soo. But I will see no humor whatever until he no longer controls the fate of the planet in so many ways.

Old but Slow wrote:My view, at this point, is that Donald is most concerned about money laundering. Things like collusion can be softened by diplomacy, but when you are talking about real money there is less room for equivocating.

It is not insignificant that Mueller has brought in attorneys experienced in prosecuting money laundering.

It is also significant that Trump was unable to get financing for his ventures from US banks.

For me the answer is image. Advertising and promotions have dominated news and facts for a while now, and we are fertilizing a generation of watchers. I see young people focused in on their devices, while walking into traffic, and I wonder where we are going?

OK, that was a bit disjointed, but still honest. Peace.

Trump's already worth billions, so I'm not sure how much motivation he has to get rich off the presidency. If that were his motivation, there are far easier and more efficient ways to make a buck. IMO the reason Trump sought the presidency was for the same reason most candidates do: To satisfy an insatiable ego. I'd be very surprised if there was a conscious effort by Trump to pad his already unimaginable fortune. Until Mueller completes his investigation, there's going to be a lot of speculation as to what's under those stones he's turning over.

Along that same subject, I remember vividly an exchange between VP nominee Nelson Rockefeller and a member of Congress during Rocky's confirmation hearing after Gerald Ford had nominated him after Nixon resigned. Rockefeller was asked by someone what his thoughts were about his being part of one of the world's richest families and being just a heart beat away from the most powerful position in the world. Rockefeller had what I thought was the perfect response that went something like this:

"If someone wants to bribe me, it's going to take one heck of a lot of money."

If everything else is equal, I'll always trust the person that has money vs. one that doesn't.

Correction on my previous post needed. Jeff Flake from AZ was actually in the same frame of mind as I was as a staunch never Trump conservative who cast our vote elsewhere on election day. His new book has some very pointed and true criticism of Republicans in the congress who continue to believe the emperor is wearing clothes, that he is able to pivot to being more presidential. He believes it is time to hold Trump accountable.

And RD as someone who apparently thought Trump would bring order to the oval office good lord man weren't you paying attention the least 40 years of this guys public life!!!!!!??? My best buddy and successful millionaire businessman felt the same as you, hey he's a businessman he will bring order. Its the first political disagreement of our 41 year friendship and its so stark we don't talk about it at all.

But look at his history!!!! His love life and sexual behavior is a mess. His businesses are a mess as 6 bankruptcies show when he's running casinos where the house always wins. He has a trail of broken business relationships, backstabbing and betraying many who helped him and unpaid bills that bankrupted many subcontractors who had worked their entire lives to build their small companies successfully. He has an untold number of tenants who have sued for shoddy conditions and being forced out of residences. MOF his company has been sued or sued others over 30 THOUSAND times!!!! eons more than other similarly sized and capitalized companies.

What in the F#k did you people expect?

It was all about making Trump great again, or keeping trump out of jail more accurately.Prosecutor Preet Baraha was already sniffing around money laundering allegations in the New York real estate market before Trump was nominated. Now that he hit the golden BB and actually won the majority of his efforts have been spent settling scores and covering his arse on the Russia thing from the position only a POTUS can, firing Baraha after calling him on numerous occasions to "chat" and assure him his job was safe. Comey, same pattern same result, bye bye, and verbally browbeating AG Sessions to try to get him to resign so he can appoint Rudy Giuliani to fire Mueller. Make Trump immune.....Its what it was about and use the suckers in the republican party as a vehicle.The saddest thing of all is that over 30% of Americans buy one single word of the bull$#1+ coming out of his mouth.Were going down the tubes as a nation.

Hawktawk wrote:And RD as someone who apparently thought Trump would bring order to the oval office good lord man weren't you paying attention the least 40 years of this guys public life!!!!!!???.

Personal/public life aside, it's a valid assumption that a person that's spent a good part of his adult life in a board room would know how to maintain an organization and keep them focused. Most successful businessmen can compartmentalize their lives so as to keep the personal and professional aspects separate and from interfering with one another. Except in the current view of Donald Trump that's aided by 20/20 hindsight, the fact that his personal life was a bit of a mess was not necessarily a red flag that would indicate a lack of organizational skills.

I mentioned earlier in another thread that Richard Branson said before the election that he once had lunch with Trump and according to him it was the strangest lunch he's ever had.He said that Trump invited him and then spent most of the lunch telling Branson of all the people he was going to get even with when he got the chance.Branson's comment about the election was something like: I would like to see a billionaire as President, but not this billionaire.

I've been saying from the start his affection for Russia was to do about money. With Trump, it's always about money and it seems that's how he keeps score in life, not that he's having a good life, butrather he's beating someone else in every interaction or deal. It doesn't look like he thinks there can be a win-win in business, only winners and losers so he cheats investors, stiffs tradesmen, bullies those that complain via lawsuits that people with lesser fortunes can afford to defend themselves, and so on. That kind of stuff doesn't work in any political arena because the other branches of Governmentare equal in power - and more so in some ways.

Whether Mueller finds enough evidence for there to be impeachment proceedings (more of a political event than legal) is unknown at this point and even if he is impeached, will there be enough supportto remove him from office?

It's going to remain interesting for the foreseeable future is the only thing we know for sure.

NorthHawk wrote:Whether Mueller finds enough evidence for there to be impeachment proceedings (more of a political event than legal) is unknown at this point and even if he is impeached, will there be enough supportto remove him from office?

It's going to remain interesting for the foreseeable future is the only thing we know for sure.

There's also the possibility that Trump could resign, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

If he is impeached, it would take 67 votes in the Senate to remove him from office. Under the current math, it would take 19 Republican senators, or 36% of them, to join all 46 Dems and 2 independents to vote him out. It's going to take some very compelling evidence, along with about a 25% approval rating, to cause that kind of a shift.

And speaking of Mueller, there hasn't been a lot of information leaked out of his investigation yet. Either he has some very disciplined associates or there isn't anything substantial yet.

RiverDog wrote:And RD as someone who apparently thought Trump would bring order to the oval office good lord man weren't you paying attention the least 40 years of this guys public life!!!!!!???.

Personal/public life aside, it's a valid assumption that a person that's spent a good part of his adult life in a board room would know how to maintain an organization and keep them focused. Most successful businessmen can compartmentalize their lives so as to keep the personal and professional aspects separate and from interfering with one another. Except in the current view of Donald Trump that's aided by 20/20 hindsight, the fact that his personal life was a bit of a mess was not necessarily a red flag that would indicate a lack of organizational skills.[/quote]

See that's the problem RD is the perception of many who didn't look behind the glitter and the apprentice success and the best selling Art Of The Deal and truly examine this mans PROFESSIONAL life.

MOF the author of the book is a democrat who detests Trump now and feels guilty to have helped "make" Trump. He describes a man who was fidgety and erratic in his thought process and speech patterns with a very short attention span and a foul disposition, a desk cluttered with junk, a man who had no intellectual curiosity, didn't read much of anything outside the morning paper, did not exercise and so on. In other words exactly the guy we see today only hes more senile now.

Trump has never sat in a boardroom.Hes been the grand Poo Pah from day one with his children drifting in and out of the picture. His companies ran like his white house as 6 bankruptcies and virtually every american lending institution refusing to loan him money will attest.. He was given 25 million by his father to start out and bailed out of one especially bad bankruptcy with 3 million in poker chips left at the window of a casino by his dear old dad in a very legally questionable maneuver. His poor management may well have led him to assist in laundering money in a desperate move to obtain money. Something is driving his love affair with the Kremlin and Mueller's investigation of his finances including taking over the Preet Baraha real estate/money laundering investigation in New York.

The dude was born on 3rd base with a golden spoon in his mouth, struck out at least 6 times and millions of people thought he was a home run hitter.

Well not me. Sorry to say I told you so a year and a half ago . I got ripped for being so shrill about this ass clown on this and other social media sites but unfortunately the guy is even worse than I thought.Id rather have been so wrong but this is our pilot and there are no parachutes short of impeachment to remove this clear and present danger as the supposed leader of the free world.

There's also the possibility that Trump could resign, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

If he is impeached, it would take 67 votes in the Senate to remove him from office. Under the current math, it would take 19 Republican senators, or 36% of them, to join all 46 Dems and 2 independents to vote him out. It's going to take some very compelling evidence, along with about a 25% approval rating, to cause that kind of a shift.

And speaking of Mueller, there hasn't been a lot of information leaked out of his investigation yet. Either he has some very disciplined associates or there isn't anything substantial yet.

Mueller doesn't need to leak anything. Its a previously unprecedented flood coming out of the WH every day. If you don't think Trump Jr, Kushner, and Manafort hiding a meeting with Russians digging for dirt, lying about it then drip drip drip coming clean isn't substantial I don't know what to tell you.

And how about today's WAPO article about Trump having PERSONALLY WRITTEN the first deceptive if not flat out untrue version of events that was attributed to Don Jr by the WH.Trumps lawyer had flatly denied he had been consulted or had anything to do with that statement. All these deceptions are evidence of guilt in the eyes of a prosecutor and Mueller is not going to be any different.Was Trump aware of that meeting in real time? It's a huge question.

I could see Mueller drop a bombshell any day now there is plenty of evidence of collusion, obstruction and IMO treason.

As for the Repubs when its time to impeach it will happen. Even Rasmussen Has trump below 39% and some have him at 35% or lower. The legislative agenda is not happening.At some point why protect the guy anymore?

The rats will jump off the sinking ship eventually, they will have no option.